Africa RISING: Sustainable intensification of crop-livestock systems to improve food security and farm income diversification in the Ethiopian highlands
Specifically, the project will:
- To characterise the resource use strategies, their evolution in relation to major drivers and household typologies to map potential trajectories and sequence of solutions for sustainable intensification of crop livestock systems with starting points of different intensity in order to develop a model of sustainable intensification for crop-livestock in the Highlands that can be scaled out to enable broad-based productivity growth in farming systems characterised by population pressure and shrinking farm size
- To enable co development (farmers, private entrepreneurs, development and research sectors) in selected benchmark learning sites of combinations of crop, livestock and natural resource management technologies to develop locally adapted and farm specific intensification options
- To evaluate biophysical, economic and social trade offs and opportunities in particular at the crop-livestock-soil intersection of biomass production and use
Our hypotheses are:
- That the potential trajectory for intensification – and therefore solutions to enhance sustainable intensification of smallholder crop livestock systems will vary depending on the initial level of intensification in the farming system, and the level of capital assets among farm households, which will also reflect the market opportunities for specific crop and livestock commodities and as well as institutional and policy environments
- There are real opportunities to improve productivity and environmental management through applying, combining and improving existing technological interventions
- Evaluation of trade offs between different combinations of interventions will further enhance targeting and ensure diverse livelihood dimensions, including opportunities for women are balanced
